Monday Bulletin: Martino’s | Paesano | Burro

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MARTINO’S

You wait 18 months for a new Martin Kuczmarski restaurant, then two come along at once. Fans of old-school hospitality are rejoicing at the news that the former Soho House Group COO and creator of The Dover in Mayfair (winner of The Good Food Guide’s Most Beautiful Restaurant 2025) has opened not one but two new spots in the space of a week. First up, Martino’s on Sloane Square, a modern take on a mid-century Milanese trattoria and bar, now open seven days a week for anything from a quick espresso and cornetto at breakfast to a candlelit dinner of seafood linguine and veal Milanese. Next comes Dover Street Counter, just a few doors down from The Dover, a riff on a late 1950s Los Angeles diner with a ‘90s R&B soundtrack, stainless steel bar and kitchen counter, and kitsch-but-chic cocktail list. It officially opens its doors today. Both have the makings of instant classics.

ADMIRALTY ARCH

Waldorf Astoria London Admiralty Arch, opening on The Mall in 2026, has revealed details of its two destination restaurants: Coreus by Clare Smyth, and Daniel Boulud’s Café Boulud which will return to London after a six-year absence.

PAESANO

Ten years after launching in Glasgow, cult Neapolitan pizzeria Paesano Pizza has finally opened an Edinburgh location. The 160-cover restaurant, kitted out with two copper Marana Forni pizza ovens, occupies the site of the BBC’s former Scottish HQ.

CONOR GADD

Conor Gadd, chef and co-owner of Trullo in Highbury is opening his first solo venture, Burro, in Covent Garden in early 2026. Taking over the former Petersham site, he’ll serve appealing Italian dishes such as fettuccine Alfredo and tiramisù bomboloni.

• Eggslut is taking a crack at Manchester. It opens its Deansgate site in late January. Truffle hash browns all round.
  
  
• In celebration of Hoppers’ 10th birthday, Hoppers King’s Cross is running a limited edition £10 breakfast menu from 5-7 December. All proceeds to Feeding the Future.
  
  
• The team behind YiQi opens a new noodle and dumpling house in Chinatown this month, serving the likes of ‘cappuccino’ chicken noodles, and beef sheng jian bao.
  
  
• Another Chinatown newcomer: Ning’s Fresh Beef Hot Pot on Rupert Street from the team behind Murger Han, now open for all-you-can-eat Chaoshan-style hot pot.
  
  
• Aqua Restaurant Group’s Dim Sum Library debuts in Covent Garden next week. On the menu: wagyu beef puffs, black garlic siu mai, and dan dan xiao long bao.
  
  
• Julie’s in Holland Park is sprouting an offshoot. Tara MacBain and chef Owen Kenworthy will turn Little Julie’s, their café-bar pop-up, permanent early next year.
  
  
• Celentano’s, Anna and Dean Parker’s popular Glasgow restaurant, leaves Cathedral House after its final service on 31 December and will reopen with a new look at the upcoming Arthouse Glasgow hotel in early spring.
  
  
• French hospitality group La Nouvelle Garde, known for its Parisian brasseries, is to make its international debut. Brasserie Olivia opens on Sloane Square in 2026.
  
  
• News from The Rectory in the Cotwolds: former Petersham Nurseries chef director Damian Clisby has joined the boutique hotel and restaurant as head chef.
  
  
  

WHAT WE’RE READING

Love your local: inside Britain’s community pub revival: The Good Food Guide

Generations: Opeoluwa Odutayo meets Adejoké Bakare: CODE

How Instagram is destroying its own influencers: Gizzi Erskine, The i Paper

THE DUMBWAITER

To Claridge’s, for the annual Christmas tree reveal, this year designed by Daniel Lee of Burberry. Supplying festive cheer in abundance were Jennifer Saunders, Pink Pantheress, Richard E. Grant, Hannah Waddingham and Olivia Colman.

It’s all getting a bit Cluedo on London’s restaurant scene. While sleuthing chefs attempt to track down the Elystan Street langoustine thief and the Kitchen Table glass thief, Bistro Freddie reports the disappearance of two candelabras which went walkies from the Shoreditch restaurant after its second anniversary celebration last week. As if restaurants don’t have it hard enough.